Water – The benefits

Continuously I see and find that people just aren’t drinking enough water, everyone has some idea of how important water is yet feel the meagre amount of 1L a day or a few cups of tea will fill your quota well you’re sorely mistaken.

We don’t need to make a huge rant about this so I’m going to lay the “Rock Bottom” on this and slam it down in bullet points.

LIFE

Going GCSE on you’re A#S here, body is 80% water, it’s the principal of all life here on earth! If you’re not hydrated you’re not going to function as well as you could, which leads on to point TWO

FAT LOSS

This is the one I don’t get the most! As mentioned in a previous post nearly everyone’s goal is some sort of fat loss yet you hardly drink water! Why is it needed so much!? The principal action of oxidising (breaking down) fat and being able to utilise it is through “hydrolysis”…… HYDRO yes water, so if you’re dehydrated this is done at a reduced efficiency.

FATIGUE

How often do you feel tired, fatigued, with headaches and other little ailments?! Potential is that you’re dehydrated, you will be surprised how quickly some of these things are solved by more water.

CAFFEINE

I’m not going be like some fools out there and say the “caffeine dehydrates you” as it doesn’t! BUT it is a diuretic

Diuretic – “Causes increased passing of urine.”

So you will go to the toilet more often thus expelling more water and dehydrating yourself, ensure that water is replaced each time

TRANSPORTER

Water is essential for proper digestion, nutrient absorption and chemical reactions, as well as food to be metabolised and transported by the bloodstream. No less important is the ability of water to transport waste material out of our bodies.

COOLING SYSTEM

Obviously when you train you sweat! This caries from person to person as you could be a “sweaty betty” but going to the gym with no water or one of those tiny 200ml bottles I’ve seen is enough to make me laugh! HAHAHA………. But seriously you should be consuming around 500ml per 30mins of exercise, though this does depend how intense it is!

HOW MUCH

A good marker of how much water you should be having per day is 0.024 x BW/kg = Water in L

Remember to add your activity and how much you’re sweating to this too!